Georges Braque (1882 - 1963) La Table de Cuisine

Georges Braque (1882 – 1963) "La Table de Cuisine" Lithograph with highlights. Signed in pencil & numbered 247/300. Printed in Paris by Maeght. Dated 1942.

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Georges Braque is one of the leading figures in the development of modern European art, from his association, in the early years of the 1900’s, with Post-Impressionism and Fauvism, to his later involvement, with Picasso, in the foundation of Cubism, one of the most revolutionary and influential movements in the history of 20th century art. Braque was born in 1882 in the village of Argenteuil-sur-Seine, a favoured location for many of the major French impressionist painters, such as, Edouard Manet, Pierre Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet. Braque’s family subsequently moved to Le Havre, where he enrolled in evening art classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and also joined his father in the family painting and decorating business. His early training in painting and decorating, where he learned to grind pigments, mix colours and master painting techniques such as marbling and faux wood effects, are evident throughout his oeuvre.

Braque and Picasso met for the first time in 1907 and for the next seven years they forged a deep personal and artistic friendship, visiting each-others studios regularly, to examine each-others paintings and to discuss their ideas of art. It was from this close association that they evolved a style of painting, influenced primarily by the paintings of Paul Cezanne and by a mutual interest in African art, which sought to do away with received conventions of realist painting. Their new style of painting was disparagingly christened “Cubism”, by the French art critic, Louis Vauxcelles, on seeing Braque’s landscape paintings of L’Estaque in 1908, which emulated the landscape paintings of Paul Cezanne. Both Braque and Picasso attempted to portray the notion that we are not just neutral viewers of an objective external reality, but that our perceptions are also informed by our preconceived knowledge of the world. Cubism, as practised by Braque and Picasso, deconstructed objects and linear perspective (the illusion of depth on a flat surface) and reduced them to their basic elements of geometric forms and flattened planes. This reconstruction of objects and pictorial space led to the stylistic motif of showing objects from a variety of viewpoints simultaneously, a motif that became a hallmark of Braque’s artwork and of Cubism as an art movement.

Braque is also credited with the invention of the papier collé technique of collage, which he first used in 1912, when he drew on imitation wood grain paper that was pasted onto a white background. Papier collé differs from collage in that only paper cut-outs are used in the construction of the artwork, whereas collage employs various different materials. This method of picture making was central to what is now referred to as synthetic cubism. Early analytic cubist paintings dis-assembled different facets of various objects and reconstructed them, evoking the same object. Synthetic cubism focussed on constructing objects, often through paper cut-outs which in outline resembled the form of the actual object, such as a vase or a jug in a still life painting. In this way, both Braque and Picasso were innovators who created the first “mixed-media” artworks, and who also raised the question of whether an artwork could be composed of an assemblage of manufactured or everyday materials, such as newsprint or coloured paper.

This new visual language of Cubism, originated by Braque and Picasso had a far reaching influence over many visual artists both in France and throughout the world, such as Juan Gris, André Lhote, Albert Gleizes, Fernand Leger, Francis Picabia, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, and Diego Ribera. Two important Irish artists, who were at the forefront of the modern art movement in Ireland, and who were very much influenced by the theories of Cubism were Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone, both of whom studied with André Lhote and Albert Gleizes in Paris. They, in turn, influenced a younger generation of Irish artists, such as Rose Ganly, who spent six months in Paris studying with Andre Lhote in 1951, and who produced a number of cubist paintings in this period.  
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As an artist, Braque was a ceaseless innovator and explored many different techniques of art making, including etching, lithography, sculpture, stained glass design and jewellery design. As testament to his standing as a giant of modern art, Braque became the first ever artist to have his work exhibited at the Louvre, during his own lifetime.